Just realized that the first chapter from Stephen R. Donaldson's Against All Things Ending is now available on the author's website! For more info about this title: Canada, USA, Europe.

To those who asked in the comment section of the previous Donaldson post, I wholeheartedly recommend the two Thomas Covenant series from the 80s. The main character is not the most likeable of fellows, but you'll warm up to him as the series progresses.

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Wow. Blast from the past. I remember reading the 1st Chronicles in mass market paperback sometime after 'The Power That Preserves' was in mass market but before 'The Wounded Land' had been published. I think I was around 12 years old. I devoured the first three in like a week and absolutely loved them. Saved my pennies to buy each of the 2nd chronicles in hardcover the day they were released and read them all straight through. Read all 6 again straight through a couple of years later.

I can't overstate how amazing I thought these books were and what a profound effect they had on my development as a reader and on my life in general.

Interestingly enough, I went back to reread them for the second time a few years ago (when I was in my mid 30s) and it was a constant struggle. I made it through Lord Foul's Bane and The Illearth War but it took months to slog through them. I couldn't get more than a few dozen pages into The Power That Preserves before I just couldn't stand it anymore. I found Covenant to be an interesting and compelling character when I was a child/teenager, but now I think he is just a total douchebag whom I cannot stand and have zero sympathy for. He behaves like a spoiled child and too many of the characters around him don't react to him realistically. Suspension of disbelief finally began to be too much of an issue.

Minor quibble, but the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is actually from the 70's. I believe that trilogy was one of the very first commercially successful American epic fantasy stories.

I've only read the first two books off that first trilogy, though I keep meaning to get to The Power That Preserves. Like K, I'm finding Covenant a hard guy to like, though I admire Donaldson's guts in writing a heroic fantasy with an anti-hero for a main character.

Also, are there other fantasy worlds that are ruled by a meritocracy the way the Land is? One of my favorite things about these books is that the dump the obsession with a benevolent king that so many epic fantasies are afflicted with.

I've read and re-read the series a number of times, and though the protagonist is indeed hard to like it hasn't spoiled anything for me. I still love these books! I remember reading the second trilogy in three days, neither knowing nor caring what the weather was like or what happened in the world. Books that make me laugh, cry, rage are all too rare. One of my favourite quotes is from one of the Covenant books: "There's only one way you can hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken."